A Record
Short for Address Record: Maps from an IP address to a domain name. An A Record is also referred to as a host or hostname.
CNAME Record
Short for Canonical Name Record: A special type of DNS record in a DNS database used to create an alias from one hostname to another.
For example: If, www.YourHostedDomainName.com, is a CNAME to, YourHostedDomainName.com - then this means that anyone accessing www.YourHostedDomainName.com will be pointed to the same IP address as YourHostedDomainName.com.
This is useful when your IP address changes, since you will only have to update the YourHostedDomainName.com DNS entry and www.YourHostedDomainName.com will automatically point to the right place.
Note: We recommend the use of individual A Records rather than CNAME aliases. It is recognized as a "best practice" among DNS experts to minimize the use of CNAME aliases.
MX Record
Short for Mail Exchanger Record: This DNS record is an entry in a DNS database that identifies the email server that handles email for a given domain or subdomain.
It is possible to set more than one MX Record along with prioritization, enabling the use of primary and backup email serves. Setting a Backup MX makes the entry you specify a secondary mail exchanger. This means that delivery will be attempted to the first MX record, and then to the Backup MX, if the first one fails.
